


10 Years Later

by ThatPeskyBoat



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Any More Tags Would Spoil It, Earth C (Homestuck), HAPPY 4/13 Y'ALL, John's Birthday, Not Sadstuck, Other, Reminiscing, Sadstuck, john is lonely
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 16:01:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18449906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatPeskyBoat/pseuds/ThatPeskyBoat
Summary: A young man stands in his bedroom.It just so happens that today, the 13th of April, 2019, is this young man’s birthday.Ten years ago, he played a game that would change his life forever.Today, he is 23 years old, and his name is John Egbert.> John Egbert: Reminisce.





	10 Years Later

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF HOMESTUCK!

A young man stands in his bedroom.  
It just so happens that today, the 13th of April, 2019, is this young man’s birthday.  
Ten years ago, he played a game that would change his life forever.  
Today, he is 23 years old, and his name is John Egbert.

> John Egbert: Reminisce.

Instead of deciding to take the path of an omniscient voice like you did all those years ago, you decide to instead walk around your house. This isn’t the exact same house that you started the game in. Instead, this is the house of a John that died for you to take his place. This is the house of the John that Jade lived without for three years. Yet, you are also John, and he was just another doomed version of you. There were far too many of those, you believe. Part of you hopes that he still exists in the dream bubbles, and wasn’t completely obliterated in the fight between the ghosts and LE.

Actually, you wonder if the dream bubbles still existed at all. Hopefully they did. Knowing there was existence beyond your conditional immortality is comforting in a way, despite all the times you’ve died. You think about how many times Dave died as a thirteen year old, before trying to shake that off. Dead Daves are the enemy. Well, actually they were just a bunch of sad ghosts wondering where they went wrong, but it’s still depressing to think about. You shake off those thoughts, deciding to go downstairs.

Dad is down here. He isn’t actually your dad, because in both timelines that dad died, but he’s so similar. This is Jane’s dad, one that welcomed you with open arms in the end as he hugged you and your young nanna. He decided to live with you and take care of you (despite the fact that you don’t really need anyone to take care of you, since you’re a god and all) because Jane is so busy these days running Crockercorp. You try not to think about the fact that he might actually biologically be your son.

Okay, never mind, that thought is going to fuck you up for a little bit.

How?

With who???

When??????

Okay, crisis over. He’s coming into the room, with a gigantic birthday cake. You suspect that there’s a second one in the kitchen, just as extravagant, for Jane. She hardly has any time for that sort of nonsense anymore, she’s too busy. It doesn’t matter though, Dad is giving your hair a ruffle, and taking a puff of his pipe. He’s such a gentleman. You give your thanks to him and compliment the cake, so he walks off with a big smile on his face. There’s too much nostalgia buried within this cake for you to eat it, so you put it down to the side. Maybe you’ll try and find the mayor today, he always likes to eat cake.

There are spots on the wall where posters of jesters used to sit, used to leer at you. Now, they’re filled with pictures of you and your friends, of the people that you want nothing more than to see today. You got to spend so little time with them before you came into this universe, before everyone scuttled off to do their jobs on this new Earth. It’s hard to remember what your own job was, exactly, but it must’ve been finished pretty quickly. Maybe they wanted you to take it easy since you literally saved the entirety of the timeline and bumped it to one where you could save the universe and all that.

Yet you kind of wish the old ugly Jester paintings were hung up again. It was a misunderstanding that made him put them up, but it was an act of love that led him to it.

Despite the lump in your throat, you remember the promise that you made to yourself: you will not cry today.

Your hand rests on the knob to the front door. You can almost feel the electric tingle of the Ultimate Reward as it shocked your hand, gave you pins and needles as you opened that door. Of course, that’s just another memory. Today, you are going to spend your birthday quietly, with the mayor of Can Town. That’s it.

You open the door.

**“SURPRISE!”**

You almost fall on your ass from the overwhelming wall of sound that squeezed through the comparably tiny rectangle of your front door. The sun is blinding and you can barely make out what’s happening in front of you. Rapidly sight returns to you, and you can’t even describe the sight in front of you.

Well, actually, you can.

Rose and Kanaya stand in front of a table, their arms linked. Roxy, Calliope and Jane all stand huddled together, waving at you from Rose’s left, and to the right Dave and Karkat stand together with Dave resting his arm on Karkat’s head. Jade smiles from in the air behind them, whilst Dirk sits on the edge of the table. Jake is lingering on the other side holding the Mayor in the air. The PM and Jack stand off to the side, seemingly bickering about something. There’s Terezi flipping the birds, Gamzee, Aradia still in her godtier with a blind Sollux, Vriska back from the war, Erisolsprite, Gcatavrosprite, Nannasprite, Jasprosesprite^2, and Davepetasprite^2.

Everyone’s here. This has never happened before. Part of you wonders whether this is just a big practical joke and they’re all just an illusion, but as you step outside to the unsynchronised choruses of happy birthday mixed with For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow, there’s no way this can’t be real. Jane walks over to you brings you into her short embrace with a giant smile on her face.

You can’t help yourself. The first tears fall from your eyes, streaking down your face and making tracks for those that are to follow them.

Your promise to yourself is broken, but you can’t think of a better way to have broken it.

“Happy Birthday, John.”

“Happy Birth day, Jane.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this work and would like to commission me, please head over to http://thatpeskyboat.tumblr.com/post/180256135599/writing-commissions and check out the details there.


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